In our copending United States patent application Ser. No. 348,875 filed Feb. 16, 1982, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, there are described heat set gels having hardness values which are at least those of heat set gels formed from dispersions of egg white in water having the same dispersion concentration.
Such heat set gels are formed from dispersions of certain undenatured vegetable protein isolates containing at least about 90% by weight of vegetable protein (as determined by Kjeldahl nitrogen.times.6.25), known as protein micellar mass, or PMM. The protein dispersions are manipulated as to pH and ionic strength values, so as to provide dispersions having an ionic strength of at least about 0.2 molar and a pH of up to about 6.0.
Heat set gels produced from 20% w/w egg white dispersions typically have hardness values of about 35 to 40 texturometer units (T.U.), as determined by the G.F. Texturometer. The G.F. Texturometer and its operation are described in detail in an article entitled "The Texturometer--A New Instrument for Objective Texture Measurement" by H. H. Friedman et al. published in J. of Food Science, vol. 28, p. 130 (1963).